Daily news

Raisin U.S. Appoints New CEO

Raisin U.S. Appoints New CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Raisin has appointed Cetin Duransoy as CEO of the company’s U.S. division, SaveBetter by Raisin.
  • Duransoy comes to Raisin from Fundbox, where he served as President and COO.
  • Today’s announcement follows Raisin’s $64.7 million capital raise in March of this year.

Savings and investment product marketplace Raisin has appointed a new CEO for its U.S. savings division. The Berlin-based company has selected Cetin Duransoy to head SaveBetter by Raisin, its U.S. savings platform originally launched in 2020.

Duransoy

Raisin launched SaveBetter in 2020 to serve as an online marketplace where customers can choose from a variety of savings products, including savings accounts, money market deposit accounts, and certificates of deposit. The savings tool enables users to access more favorable rates than most traditional savings accounts from a single portal.

SaveBetter has seen impressive growth recently, having added $1 billion in assets under management in the past three-to-four months. Additionally, over the same time period, the company has brought 30 financial brands onto its online marketplace. 

In the release, Duransoy said this is an “exciting time” to join Raisin as CEO. “Having already established itself in the U.S. market, demonstrating scale to banking partners and tangible benefits in increased returns for everyday Americans, Raisin is poised to lead the way in further disrupting the American cash savings market and providing a valuable tool to help millions of savers secure their financial future,” he added.

Duransoy has more than 20 years of experience in financial services. He most recently served as President and COO Fundbox, and has also held senior positions at companies including Capital One and Visa.

Today’s announcement comes just over a month after Raisin raised $64.7 million (€60 million) in a Series E funding round led by M&G’s Catalyst and Goldman Sachs. The round boosted Raisin’s total funding to almost $305 million since it was founded in 2012.

Raisin counts more than one million customers and $31.7 billion (€38 billion) assets under management across the U.S., U.K., and European Union. The company taps its network of more than 400 banks and financial service providers from 30+ countries to offer its catalogue of savings, investment, and pension products. Tamas Giorgadse is Co-Founder and CEO.

Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV

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Digital Banking Solutions Company Tyfone Raises Capital and Announces Merger

Digital Banking Solutions Company Tyfone Raises Capital and Announces Merger
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Tyfone
  • Digital banking solutions company Tyfone has secured a “significant investment” from Demopolis Equity Partners.
  • The Portland, Oregon-based company also announced a merger with digital banking provider Cubus Solutions.
  • Tyfone made its Finovate debut in 2008 at FinovateSpring.

Digital banking solutions company Tyfone hit the fintech headlines with a pair of big announcements in recent days. First, the company has received a significant investment from Demopolis Equity Partners. The amount of the funding was not disclosed.

Tyfone is also announcing that it has merged with digital banking provider Cubus Solutions. The two companies will move forward under the Tyfone brand. The investment and merger are designed to help accelerate the adoption of Tyfone’s nFinia digital banking platform. The addition of Cubus’ customers, digital solutions, and expertise will help the combined entity better serve financial institutions, helping them boost revenues and efficiency.

“Today success in digital banking – in fact, success in any financial technology – is all about engaged digital experiences and the ability to scale,” Tyfone CEO Dr. Siva Narendra said. “That means scaling up to power digital growth for larger institutions and scaling down to facilitate the smaller ones (to) stay relevant.”

Cubus CEO John-Ashley Paul added: “It is rare to find two companies so culturally well-aligned that also complement each other technologically. Our best-of-breed loan payments, loan skips, e-statements, and rewards solutions will extend the Tyfone digital banking ecosystem, leading to tighter integration and a truly exceptional user experience.”

Tyfone demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2008. In the years since, the Portland, Oregon-based company has grown into a provider of market-leading software for credit unions and community banks. This year, Tyfone has announced partnerships with Southwest Financial, a Texas based financial institution with 9,200 members and $81 million in assets; and with Members Advantage Credit Union, a credit union based in Wisconsin Rapids with 11,000 members and $178 million in assets.

Photo by Ruvim Miksanskiy

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Splitit Launches SplititExpress to Enable Checkout in Under 2-Seconds

Splitit Launches SplititExpress to Enable Checkout in Under 2-Seconds
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SplitIt
  • Splitit is launching a new white-labeled payment offering called SplititExpress.
  • The new tool supports installment payments via GPay and ApplePay, and helps customers check out in under two seconds.
  • The merchant-branded checkout experience eliminates the typical visual clutter of online checkout interfaces by removing logos.

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) company SplitIt is launching a new white-labeled payment offering called SplititExpress. The new tool enables companies to facilitate a checkout process that takes fewer than two seconds while also supporting installment payments via GPay and ApplePay.

SplititExpress allows for a merchant-branded experience that eliminates the visual clutter by removing multiple logos and checkout options. It also empowers businesses by giving them full ownership of their customers’ journey and first-party data.

Splitit’s Installments-as-a-Service product is a BNPL tool that leverages Checkout.com’s payment-acquiring capabilities to enable consumers to pay for a good or a service in installments, interest-free. The Installments-as-a-Servce tool differentiates itself from traditional BNPL offerings, however, because it is completely white-labeled and offers customers a merchant-branded experience. Because of this, during the checkout flow, customers are not redirected to a third party. What’s more, because Splitit relies on a consumer’s existing credit card, the company does not require additional credit checks. All of this results in less friction for the customer and better control over customer relationships for the merchant.

“Reducing technical uplift for our Merchants is always top of mind at Splitit, that’s why SplititExpress can be embedded into their checkouts by simply adding a few lines of code,” said Splitit Chief Technology Officer Ran Landau. “The result is an end-to-end process that takes less than 2-seconds for a consumer to pay with installments, compared to the average 1 to 2-minutes that even the fastest legacy BNPL’s offer.”

SplititExpress also enables merchants to add their own branding and messaging, and choose the repayment option that best suits their customers. By helping merchants customize these details of the payments experience, SplitIt anticipates it will help improve the overall user experience during the checkout process.

 Founded in 2012 as PayItSimple, Splitit is based in Atlanta with offices in London and Australia, as well as an R&D center in Israel. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under ticker code SPT and also trades on the US OTCQX under tickers SPTTY and STTTF. In recent years, Splitit has partnered with Stripe, Shopify, and Alipay to act as an Installments-as-a-Service option for their merchant clients.

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Payments Consulting Firm Yeeld Teams Up with Stripe

Payments Consulting Firm Yeeld Teams Up with Stripe
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Payments consulting startup Yeeld has teamed up with Stripe.
  • Two former Stripe employees – Emily Tsitrian and Mira Boora – founded Yeeld in the fall of 2022.
  • Earlier this month, Yeeld announced a partnership with Merit Software Holdings.

Payments consulting company Yeeld has announced a partnership with Stripe. What makes the partnership interesting is that Yeeld was launched just a few months ago by a pair of former Stripe employees: Emily Tsitrian and Mira Boora. The two financial services professionals are leveraging their more than 24 years of payments experience to help businesses optimize all aspects of the payments process – from managing chargebacks to streamlining payouts. Yeeld’s partnership with Stripe is the most recent example of this effort.

“Payments is no longer a commodity – it’s a strategy,” Tsitrian said. “It involves customer experience, geographic expansion, managing risks, and building for scale. Yeeld is passionate about helping businesses of all sizes achieve their payments-related ambitions, and partnering with Stripe will help (us) to do so faster.”

Yeeld offers service at three tiers: Kickstarter, Premium, and Enterprise. These tiers target tech-enabled SMEs and startups; marketplaces, mid-sized businesses, and e-commerce firms; and established companies, respectively. All Yeeld customers benefit from an initial, deep dive into the company’s current payment operations. This enables Yeeld to determine the best path toward optimizing the company’s system. Companies also receive a customized integration guide, a detailed project plan, as well as developer support and custom training. In its few months of existence, Yeeld already has gained 18 clients and completed 20 projects.

Earlier this month, Yeeld announced its partnership with Merit Software Holdings. Merit Software acquires, manages, and builds vertical software businesses. Yeeld will serve as the firm’s embedded payments consulting partner for Merit’s portfolio companies.

“We are excited to leverage the deep industry expertise from the Yeeld team to further accelerate growth and deliver even greater value to our customers, portfolio, and future acquisitions,” Merit CEO John Burke said.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Yeeld was founded in November 2022.

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Plumery Raises $4.5 Million for its Component-Based Banking Tech

Plumery Raises $4.5 Million for its Component-Based Banking Tech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Banking technology provider Plumery raised $4.5 million in seed funding.
  • Tomorrow Ventures, Headline, Seedcamp, and Cocoa Ventures led the investment.
  • Former Mambu CTO and CPO Ben Goldin founded Plumery in 2020.

Component-based banking technology company Plumery has raised $4.5 million in funding. Better Tomorrow Ventures, Headline, Seedcamp, and Cocoa Ventures led the investment. Also participating in the funding were business angels Didier Valet, Ricky Knox, and Alan Morgan. Valet is former deputy CEO of Société Générale. Knox is the founder of Tandem Bank. Morgan is a former senior partner at McKinsey. Ben Goldin, former CTO and CPO of Finovate alum Mambu, founded the company in 2022. Plumery will use the capital to fuel product development.

“The banking industry has changed and continues to evolve every day,” Goldin said. “Today, consumers are looking for a seamless digital onboarding and customer experience, continuous product improvements that are personalized, and reliability when it comes to their bank. However, many traditional banks aren’t able to make these changes as easily as one would think which is why it’s essential that we build a next-generation platform.”

Plumery offers a software overlay that enables banks to develop and launch mobile and web apps faster. Financial institutions can use Plumery’s technology without having to overhaul their existing banking infrastructure. The company expects to launch a publicly accessible version of its solution via a subscription-based model later this year.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Plumery was founded in December 2022. Goldin, who serves as the company’s CEO, brings more than 20 years of experience to the new venture. He spent more than five years at Mambu as CTO, CPO, and Strategic Advisor. Previously to his tenure at Mambu, Goldin spent more than four years at Backbase – another Finovate alum.

In a LinkedIn post, Headline General Partner Jonathan Userovici explained the role he believed Plumery would play in helping banks innovate better.

“Something we all noticed,” Userovici wrote, “successful tech companies, including some challenger banks, improve their mobile applications up to 5x more frequently than traditional banks. With Plumery, everyone will be able to implement mobile and web apps blazingly fast and at a fraction of current costs.”

Photo by _ Harvey

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The European Payments Initiative Makes Acquisitions to Fuel New European Unified Payment Solution

The European Payments Initiative Makes Acquisitions to Fuel New European Unified Payment Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • The European Payments Initiative (EPI) acquired two payments companies– Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq.
  • EPI will leverage the new acquisitions to build a unified payment solution for Europe. 
  • The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany.

Payments solutions initiative European Payments Initiative (EPI) announced it has acquired two payments companies and has simultaneously unveiled plans to launch an instant payments solution for Europe.

EPI is purchasing Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI) for undisclosed amounts. The three companies are joining forces to organize EPI’s unified payment solution for Europe. 

“EPI will leverage the strong operational experience, know-how and local market knowledge of these companies,” said EPI CEO Martina Weimert. “We are developing a new, scalable platform to address the modern and evolving payment needs of European consumers and merchants in the best possible way, with efficient, state-of-the-art technology.”

Based in the Netherlands, iDEAL is the region’s major payment scheme. In fact, iDEAL’s payment scheme operator, Currence, counts all major Dutch banks as members. In the Netherlands, 55% of online transactions use iDEAL to facilitate payments. iDEAL was first launched in 2005 and was revamped 15 years later in 2020 to accommodate for the growth of ecommerce transactions and updated consumer expectations.

Founded in 2014, PQI offers a mobile payment platform that can be used in-store, online, and for peer-to-peer money transfers. With headquarters in Amsterdam, the company operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.

Both iDEAL and PQI will help build the EPI digital wallet solution that will offer instant, account-to-account payments under a single brand for users in all European countries. The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany. In the future, EPI will also offer person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments followed by ecommerce and point-of-sale payments. The scheme will support one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery, and reservations. Over time, EPI will add in more services such as buy now, pay later, digital identity features, and merchant loyalty and rewards. 

The scheme has a diverse set of shareholders, including BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale, and Worldline. Also worth noting are the newest members. Belfius and DZ Bank joined in 2022, and today, ABN Amro and Rabobank are joining as well.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Super.com Raises $85 Million for Savings Super App

Super.com Raises $85 Million for Savings Super App
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Super.com raised $85 million in a Series C funding round led by Inovia Capital.
  • Super.com did not disclose its current valuation but said that it has “increased significantly” since 2021.
  • Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year.

Super.com is bringing in an $85 million investment today in a Series C fundraising round that boosts the company’s total funding to $186 million. While there is no update on Super.com’s current valuation, the company noted that it has “increased significantly” since it closed its Series B round in March of 2021.

The round was led by Inovia Capital with contributions from new investors Harley Finkelstein, Deb Liu, Allen Shim, Josh Proctor, Chris Best, Neha Narkhede, and Mike Lee. Existing investors Telstra Ventures, Acrew, Lion Capital, Full In Partners, NBA star Steph Curry, and others also contributed.

“Raising our Series C is proof of investor confidence in our ability to scale the business responsibly. This will allow us to both continue investing in growth while driving improving margins,” said company CFO Daniel Weisenfeld.

Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year and offers a savings app to help users save money, access credit, and find travel experiences. In 2022, the company launched SuperCash, a secured credit card product that offers cashback while helping users build their credit.

In addition to helping consumers track their SuperCash transactions, the Super.com app also offers deals and savings opportunities when purchasing travel experiences and shopping major brands. Since the company was founded in 2016, it has helped its five million customers save more than $150 million.

“Super.com’s diversified business model now drives savings across all facets of our customers’ lives, from travel to fintech. It’s great to see market excitement match our own as we rapidly build the first savings super app focused on everyday Americans,” said Super.com CEO Hussein Fazal.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Array Launches Debt Manager to Bring Transparency to Customer Accounts

Array Launches Debt Manager to Bring Transparency to Customer Accounts
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Array, Daily news
  • Financial enablement platform Array has launched its Debt Manager solution.
  • Debt Manager provides consumers with real-time information about their debts.
  • Array won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. The company won a second Best of Show award on its return to the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2022.

Financial enablement platform Array has launched its Debt Manager solution. The new offering is an embedded solution that gives consumers real-time information about their debts. Debt Manager is especially helpful during lead qualification, debt management, and similar processes. The technology helps reduce borrower risk and enhance loan marketing by ensuring that the prospective borrower’s most current credit data is accessible.

“At Array, our vision is to empower every individual to own their financial future by providing access to the right data and tools at the right time,” Array founder and CEO Martin Toha said. “Today’s introduction of Debt Manager is another key step to delivering on that vision by ensuring consumers can secure a loan faster or pay down debt quicker without having to jump through unnecessary hoops to make that possible.”

Debt Manager helps financial services companies negotiate two specific challenges. The first issue is the cumbersome task of gathering and collecting data from a range of financial accounts. These accounts often include credit cards, mortgages, student and auto loans, and more. The second issue is that, without this data, financial institutions can often make “suboptimal decisions” and court “significant risk” in the words of Array VP and GM of Digital Financial Management Products Deepak Sharma.

Debt Manager is the latest addition to Array’s suite of solutions for financial services companies and their customers. The new offering joins Array’s credit and financial management tools like its BuildCredit Loan, HelloPrivacy, and Identity Protect. The company is also moving toward the launch of its Subscription Manager product. This technology gives consumers better insight into their recurring payments. Array reported that 47% of banking customers in the U.S. would find subscription management tools “useful” on mobile banking apps.

The launch of Debt Manager comes one month after the company announced its partnership with FICO. The collaboration will bring FICO scores and credit data to consumers on Array’s platform. “Our partnership with FICO delivers on our promise to provide valuable data with the experience that people want, and it provides banks, credit unions, and fintechs with an embeddable solution to enable them to offer FICO Scores to meet the growing demand for credit score data.”

Founded in 2020, Array is headquartered in New York. The company has raised $67 million in funding from investors including General Catalyst, Battery Ventures, and Nyca Partners. Array won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2021. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following year, securing a second Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2022.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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TransUnion Brings Credit Scoring to the Blockchain

TransUnion Brings Credit Scoring to the Blockchain
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransUnion
  • TransUnion has partnered with Spring Labs and Quadrata to bring credit scoring to the blockchain.
  • Spring Labs’ technology will deliver TransUnion-powered data to Quadrata’s Web3 digital passport.
  • TransUnion EVP of Financial Services Jason Laky said the move will “allow for DeFi lenders to have access to this critical information when making their lending decisions with confidence, ultimately minimizing their risk and providing borrowers more opportunity for better terms.”

TransUnion has partnered with two firms to bring credit scores onto the blockchain. The Illinois-based company has tapped data security firm Spring Labs and decentralized networks expert Quadrata to ultimately help lenders make data-driven decisions on credit applications submitted via the blockchain.

The partnership will enable TransUnion to– upon the customer’s request– provide credit data that is not stored on a blockchain to decentralized finance applications (DApps). TransUnion, which holds the consumer credit data off-chain, will leverage Spring Labs’ patented technology that delivers credit scoring data while keeping the consumer’s identity on blockchain secure. Quadrata will leverage its digital passport, a Web3 identity solution that will automatically sync the credit scoring data across the blockchain.

“Credit scoring is an important tool for lenders to help mitigate risk regardless of the platform being used,” said TransUnion EVP of Financial Services Jason Laky. “This partnership with Spring Labs and Quadrata will allow for DeFi lenders to have access to this critical information when making their lending decisions with confidence, ultimately minimizing their risk and providing borrowers more opportunity for better terms.”

DeFi lending platforms have the potential to reach a more diverse set of consumers than traditional lending platforms. Not only do they offer more flexibility when compared to traditional lenders, but they also allow the borrower to customize their loan. Borrowers choose the collateral they provide, the duration of their loan, and the interest rate they are willing to pay.

Bringing credit scoring to the Web3 space will facilitate DeFi lending, lower the risk for DeFi lenders, and increase opportunities for borrowers. “As more consumers and lenders move to blockchain to conduct business, it’s important to ensure that the balance is struck between the information that lenders need to assess risk and the privacy and anonymity expected by users of the technology,” said Spring Labs CEO John Sun. “This new product featuring TransUnion’s identity and credit data at its core is a big step toward achieving that balance and allowing more lending opportunities on blockchain while minimizing risk.”

Photo by Joey Kyber

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Arkose Labs Introduces New Technology to Combat Advanced Phishing Attacks

Arkose Labs Introduces New Technology to Combat Advanced Phishing Attacks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Arkose Labs, Daily news
  • Arkose Labs introduced new detection and alert capabilities against advanced phishing attacks.
  • The new capabilities combat an evolution in phishing called “reverse proxy phishing.”
  • Arkose Labs won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2019.

Bot detection specialist Arkose Labs now detects and alerts against advanced phishing attacks. The new functionality combats “reverse proxy phishing,” the latest evolution in the challenge of dealing with fraudsters and cybercriminals.

“Phishing isn’t simply about domain block lists or analyzing website contents anymore,” Arkose Labs CTO Ashish Jain said. “Those methods might work against unsophisticated attacks, but new phishing attacks require a comprehensive security posture.”

Reverse proxy attacks use fake websites to impersonate legitimate websites. Bank websites are a common target. In the process, users are encouraged to visit the fake website via a message and are asked to login. The fake website then sends the user’s information to the server of the real web site. This causes the real website to issue a one-time password (OTP) or security PIN. The fraudster can then leverage the proxy to extract user credentials, including the OTP or PIN. The attacker can also secure the cookie from the legitimate website. This enables the cybercriminal to access the user’s account.

“Arkose Bot Manager beats attackers at their own game by forcing them to integrate Arkose into their fake pages with absolutely no effect on the user experience,” Jain added. “With Arkose integrated, we can thwart a phishing attack and give the business data on the attackers – and unlike traditional phishing detection methods, Arkose Phishing Protection is able to detect and block malicious requests in real-time.”

Arkose Labs’ new advanced phishing protection comes as the company announced a new anti-fraud guarantee against SMS toll fraud attacks. The warranty covers up to one million dollars in telecom expenses if Arkose Bot Manager fails to stop an SMS toll fraud attack against one of its managed service customers.

SMS toll fraud is a type of bot attack in which large volumes of SMS messages are sent to premium rate numbers. Also known as SMS pumping or International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF), this attack can result in sizable fraudulent SMS charges against a business. In some cases, the charges can amount to millions of dollars a month.

“This type of attack hits a company right in the wallet,” Arkose Labs CFO Frank Teruel said. “We stand confident in our platform, and Arkose already has saved customers millions in fraudulent SMS charges by stopping these attacks. Frankly, this type of warranty should be table stakes for any security vendor.”

Founded in 2017, Arkose Labs is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019. Arkose Labs returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateFall in New York. Kevin Gosschalk is founder and CEO.

Photo by Noelle Otto

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SmartAsset Acquires DeftSales to Help Advisors Grow their Practices

SmartAsset Acquires DeftSales to Help Advisors Grow their Practices
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, SmartAsset
  • Financial advice platform SmartAsset has acquired advisor prospect engagement company DeftSales.
  • The company has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset.
  • The new tool helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.

Financial advice platform SmartAsset is acquiring prospect engagement company DeftSales this week for an undisclosed amount.

Founded in 2020, DeftSales offers tools that integrate with a range of CRM platforms to automate financial advisors’ business development outreach and provide analytics insights on client engagement. The technology helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.

“We are enormously excited to announce the acquisition of DeftSales and we look forward to integrating their solutions with our own SmartAdvisor platform,” said company CEO and Founder Michael Carvin. “The feedback from advisors using DeftSales has been incredibly clear – by automating many tasks, it dramatically decreases the work required to be successful in converting SmartAdvisor prospects into clients.”

SmartAsset has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset. The new solution integrates SmartAsset’s compliant user interface with DeftSales’ automated campaigns and analytics. DeftSales by SmartAsset offers automated emails and text messages, FastCall technology that enables advisors to follow-up on leads while they are busy with a current client, and an analytics dashboard to monitor engagement efforts.

DeftSales Co-Founder and COO James Fason will join the SmartAsset team as Director of Engineering.

SmartAsset has a mission to help people make smart financial decisions. The company’s educational content, calculators, and tools reach 75 million people each month. In 2021, the New York-based company raised $110 million in funding, boosting its total funding to more than $161 million. And the company is still growing. SmartAsset has brought on 27 new hires so far this year.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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NayaOne Wins Tender from Financial Conduct Authority to Build Digital Sandbox

NayaOne Wins Tender from Financial Conduct Authority to Build Digital Sandbox
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, NayaOne
  • Digital sandbox developer NayaOne secured the Digital Sandbox tender from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
  • In the past year, NayaOne has built digital sandboxes and marketplaces for Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech North.
  • NayaOne won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in March.

FinovateEurope Best of Show winner NayaOne has scored again this year. The London, U.K.-based fintech has secured the Digital Sandbox tender from the country’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Digital Sandbox will give startups a safe and secure environment to build, test, and develop their fintech solutions. All with the full support of the FCA.

“We are thrilled to have been selected for this prestigious opportunity to collaborate with the FCA on driving innovation in financial services,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively.”

The FCA’s decision comes in the wake of a pair of pilot projects, in 2020 and again in 2022. The initiatives gave startups access to synthetic and publicly available data in order to test and develop their solutions. The FCA announced that it would make the digital sandbox permanent in the summer of 2023. NayaOne has built a business of creating digital sandboxes for financial institutions, such as Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech North. And it is this experience – according to FCA Chief Data, Information, and Intelligence Officer Jessica Rusu – that makes the company well-positioned to help the FCA fulfill its goal of “promoting solutions to complex regulatory challenges like APP fraud, greenwashing, and scam detection.”

NayaOne demoed its Digital Sandbox in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope. The company’s platform helps make innovation, integration, and partnership an easier – and faster – process for banks. NayaOne offers single key access to more than 200 technology vendors; a secure, digital sandbox environment; and 2.5 billion data points to support tech evaluation. The company reports that it has enabled banks to accelerate their proof-of-concept timeline from 12 months to only two months. This saves banks up to 80% in costs and significantly increases productivity.

NayaOne’s Digital Sandbox announcement comes as the company reports that Bambu is now available via the NayaOne Marketplace. Bambu is a Singapore-based B2B roboadvisor and fellow Finovate alum. A three-time Best of Show winner, the company most recently demoed at FinovateFall in 2021. “We recognize NayaOne’s commitment to enable banks and financial institutions to take advantage of revolutionary innovations in financial technology by bringing banks and fintechs together for innovation,” Bambu founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “As a wealth technology provider, we at Bambu want to bring our award-winning financial solutions to the forefront, and we look forward to doing so on the NayaOne Digital Transformation Platform.”

NayaOne was founded in 2019. Karan Jain joined the company as CEO in 2021.

Photo by Jorge Sepúlveda

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